To celebrate the Year of Stanisław Lem, the UW Polish Studies Endowment Committee and the Seattle-Gdynia Sister City Association present the movie Hospital of the Transfiguration / Szpital przemienienia, directed by Edward Żebrowski. This 1979 film is a haunting WWII drama based on Lem’s novel of the same title. There will be an introduction to this movie by Dr. Dawid Junke of the Institute of Cultural Studies, University of Wroclaw in Poland. Dr. Junke will be coming to the University of Washington as a Fulbright Scholar in the spring of 2022.

Stanisław Lem (1921-2006) is best known for his science-fiction novels and stories, with “Solaris” being the most famous world-wide due to being adapted to the silver screen several times.  However, he was also a respected thinker, philosopher, essayist and columnist who was very well versed in all new scientific, economic and social developments of his time, starting with cybernetics, genetics and social engineering of the 1950s and the 1960s and down to the civilization challenges of the 21st century. His books, spanning multiple genres from crime novels to political satire, were frequently a vehicle to convey his take on philosophical or political issues, trends in societies and on the future fate of our civilization.

The movie will stream on Zoom.

Also available: Encounters with Polish Literature, episode 8: Stanisław Lem with Bożena Shallcross at Polish Cultural Institute New York YouTube channel

More: Lem’s bio, his official site, the book is available on Amazon etc.